THE PEANUT GALLERY: Unused Tickets

"If you think summer next year will look like summer last year, it won't." NJ Gov. Chris Christie on Friday

Tomorrow is not guaranteed, let alone next summer. Gov. Christie's sobering reality check about the long road to rebuilding the shore is just the latest hit to life as we know it in New Jersey.

Every year for Easter, my mom gets each of her grandchildren a 100-pack of tickets for the rides on Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, NJ. The tickets go on sale early - for half price - in the spring. My mom, like me, can't pass up a bargain:

Notice the Easter Bunny on the ticket book.

Shortly after Sandy hit and the scope of the destruction came to light, I found this year's ticket book and showed it to Peanut. We still have six tickets left:

Tickets we thought we'd go back and use this year, or next year, to make memories like this one, with my mom:

August 2012

My mom has never been one to enjoy the rides. She's a sit-on-the-bench-and-sip-cold-lemonade kind of Italian princess. But since Peanut became ride-bearing age, I've forced my mom, "Mema" to Peanut, to hop on board with her every now and then. Much to my amusement:

Summer 2009. See toddler Peanut in the front?

When this past summer ended, My Director and I immediately took inventory, and started planning next summer. Our 10th anniversary is coming up and we always said we'd go back to Italy, where we spent our honeymoon. The consensus was that maybe it was ok if we took a summer off from the Shore. Boy, we sure took that for granted, didn't we? Now our decision's probably been made for us.

To donate to the relief effort in Ocean County, NJ, click here. You can also give to the statewide effort by going here. To read about more of our family memories on the Casino Pier, check out this post.